Notes about Vehicle Monitoring in Brazil and Europe from a Data Protection Perspective

Abstract

The Brazilian National Traffic Council, in a Resolution adopted in 2006, stated that every vehicle to be sold in the country should have an RFId chip. The nature of the whole project, named SINIAV, is to assemble an infrastructure all over public roads and streets capable of recognizing and identifying vehicles. A surveillance system such as SINIAV, presented as a cutting-edge system capable of bringing security to Brazilian’s streets by reducing car’s theft, has a crucial (and political) aspect which addresses the level of security that should be developed in the IT system for the use of such database, especially in a country which does not have a specific data protection legislation. The regulation of databases of personal information is an unavoidable step to be done, as the real danger to personal liberties in an automatic surveillance system, such as this one, is not based in personal surveillance, but is related to the use of this personal data. It is not by chance that the European Union is currently discussing a new Action Plan for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe. Taking into account this scenario, the current chapter analyses the SINIAV regulation from a data protection perspective.